The subject matter disclosed herein relates to additive manufacturing. More particularly, the subject matter disclosed herein relates to systems for handling additive manufacturing powder.
Additive manufacturing (AM) may include any process of producing an object through the successive layering of material rather than the removal of material, which is the case with conventional processes. Additive manufacturing can create complex geometries without the use of any sort of tools, molds or fixtures, and with little or no waste material. Instead of machining components from solid billets of plastic, much of which is cut away and discarded, the only material used in additive manufacturing is what is required to shape the part. Additive manufacturing processes may include but are not limited to 3D printing, rapid prototyping (RP), direct digital manufacturing (DDM), selective laser melting (SLM), and direct metal laser melting (DMLM).
With AM printers that use an AM powder, there is a significant amount of handling and processing of AM powder. The AM powder is loaded into an AM printer from a powder container, often gravity-fed or gravity-assisted. After printing objects in the AM printer, overflow powder can be removed or processed for reuse. Processing overflow powder for reuse typically entails moving the overflow powder, passing the overflow powder through a sieve or other filter to remove any foreign debris and facilitate uniformity of the powder particles, and returning the overflow powder to be reloaded in the AM printer. Typically, these steps are performed, often with aid of an operator, by equipment integrated with the AM printer. This equipment varies for each step, and is not configured to handle a uniform amount of AM powder at each step, or to consistently handle large quantities of AM powder. For example, a feed hopper to feed AM powder into the AM printer might hold a relatively large 18.93 liters (approximately five gallons) of AM powder, while an overflow canister that collects overflow AM powder after printing might hold only a relatively small 0.95 liters (approximately one quart) of overflow AM powder. The overflow canister can require frequent attention by an operator to move the overflow AM powder to processing areas of the AM printer for reuse. Each time an operator must tend to the overflow canister and the further processing steps, the operator is drawn away from other productive activities. Further, powder handling equipment, such as feed hoppers and overflow canisters, are not uniform between many different AM printers that might each be using the same type of AM powder, which requires more expense in equipment and organization of the different types of equipment.